'What good would it do for me to visit to Kyiv?'

Pope Francis has said he will not visit Ukraine, as he had reportedly been thinking earlier in the month.

"What good would it do for the Pope to go to Kyiv if the conflict continued the next day?" he told Argentine daily La Nacion.

The pontiff stressed he was "willing to do all that to stop the war" but a papal visit might interfere with "higher goals", endeavor to end the conflict.

Francis added: "All war is anachronistic in this world and at this level of civilization."

In the interview published on Friday, April 22nd, the Holy Father also described his unexpected visit to the Russian embassy in Vatican City in late February as "a decision I made in a waking night thinking about Ukraine".

"I went alone. I didn't want anyone to accompany me. It was a moral obligation of mine."

Asked why he never names Russia or its president in his statements against the war, he replied: "A Pope never names a head of state, much less a country, which is superior to its head of state."

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